A brief introduction to leadership by Universitetsforlaget

There is hardly anything so easy to talk about and so difficult to practice as leadership. A brief introduction to leadership is an intelligent and well-formulated book on an ubiquitous phenomenon. The author offers provocative ideas and invites us to reflect. The reader will get both a clearer understanding of the phenomenon and better qualifications to succeed in leadership in practical life.

Jan Ketil Arnulf

Jan Ketil Arnulf (born 1960) is associate professor at BI Norwegian Business School, and a registered specialist in industrial/organizational as well as clinical psychology. In recent years he has concentrated upon how leadership is exercised and created. Arnulf is a popular, engaging and intrepid lecturer. He has been teaching in China since 2006, acting as the dean of the BI-Fudan MBA program in Shanghai.

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO LEADERSHIP

”A brief introduction to leadership, should be on any bedside table.

Or maybe not? It would have a much greater impact if the book in addition was the starting point for study groups in organizations around the world ... By reading A brief introduction to leadership you are far better equipped to participate in any discussions about leadership. The book is research-based and free from flowery rhetoric and standard recipes.” Beate Karlsen (AFF/NHH) in Dagens Næringsliv

ISBN 978-82-15-02413-4

788215 024134

Jan Ketil Arnulf

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO LEADERSHIP

A brief introduction to leadership

A brief introduction.indd 1

15.05.14 13.15

ďťż

A brief introduction.indd 2

13.05.14 09:12

jan ketil arnulf

A brief introduction to leadership

Universitetsforlaget

A brief introduction.indd 3

13.05.14 09:12

© Universitetsforlaget 2014 ISBN 978-82-15-02413-4 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Universitetsforlaget. Enquiries should be sent to the Rights Department, Universitetsforlaget, Oslo, at the address below. This book was first published in 2012 by Universitetsforlaget, Oslo under the title Hva er ledelse by Jan Ketil Arnulf © Universitetsforlaget 2012

www.universitetsforlaget.no Universitetsforlaget AS P.O. Box 508 Sentrum NO-0105 Oslo Norway

Oversettelse: Emendo Cover illustration: phipatbig Cover design: Sissel Tjernstad Prepress: Rusaanes Bokproduksjon AS Typeset: Minion Pro 10,5/15 Printed in Norway by 07 Media AS – 07.no

A brief introduction.indd 4

19.05.14 14:54

Contents

Contents Chapter 1 LEADERSHIP â&#x20AC;&#x201C; in the borderland between mysticism and science. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Chapter 2 Leadership and management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Chapter 3 Theoretical explanations for leadership. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Chapter 4 Destructive leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Chapter 5 Creating leadership: Recruitment and leadership development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Chapter 6 Leadership across time and space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Keywords. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

A brief introduction.indd 5

13.05.14 09:12

ďťż

A brief introduction.indd 6

13.05.14 09:12

LEADERSHIP – in the borderland between mysticism and science

Chapter 1

LEADERSHIP – in the borderland between mysticism and science Leadership is easier said than done. Few things are as easily expressed in grand words and so difficult to achieve in practice as leadership. This book is an invitation – and hopefully also a provocation – to reflect on why this is so. My own interest in leadership stems from being witness to a few spectacular and expensive leadership failures. As a psychologist, I have a occasionally been at the scene when people had to clean up after leaders who first made life really miserable for people and then put jobs at risk. What caught my interest was not the lack of professional skill in itself; such things happen everywhere. The curious point is that these leaders were publicly prominent people, hand-picked with the expensive help of experts and extensive board work. Energetic, leader-like behavior actually became a strain on the organization. After many years as a leadership consultant and lecturer in the field, it is my impression that many people have an almost mystical relationship with leadership. It is as if people think leadership can only be experienced, not understood. People frequently say that good leaders are born, not made, and that either way, leadership is not a science, but

A brief introduction.indd 7

13.05.14 09:12

Chapter 1

an art you cannot learn in school. Ideas about leadership sometimes come near to blind faith in talents and personalities. At the same time, I have seen with disbelief how incapable we are of recognizing good leaders, while at the same time being very confident that we know what leadership is. People’s burning desire for good leadership seems mixed with unreflected ideas: a flammable combination that threatens jobs and organizations. Newspaper coverage of such cases is only the tip of the iceberg. The fascination for leadership may paradoxically block the development of professional knowledge. The answer to what the nature of leadership is will not be found in the myriad of leadership aphorisms offered by all kinds of gurus. My ambition with this book is to combine practical, sober and critical perspectives. A good starting point will be to sharpen the terminology a bit. The word “leadership” has gradually taken shape in the twentieth century as similar to yet slightly different from other words describing power, control and influence over other people. The commonest of these words will be used in conjunction with leadership to describe various aspects of life in organizations: Power is the ability to make other people do what you want them to do, regardless of their own wishes. In its most extreme form, it is expressed in power systems such as slave-holding societies, prison camps and authoritarian regimes. In more democratic, moderate forms, power is built on national ownership of and control over resources, such as ownership and control over media; or the ability to shape other people’s behaviors and thoughts by forcing them to adhere to a certain lifestyle. Management, or administration, is a recipe for how to operate organizations. Management is about how the work is supposed to be organized: about rules, procedures, practices and systems. How will the money and resources be allocated, who will be hired or fired, how will the organization create budgets and plans, who will collaborate with

A brief introduction.indd 8

13.05.14 09:12

LEADERSHIP – in the borderland between mysticism and science

whom, and last, but not least: How will the organization’s resources be secured – where will the money come from? Authority is a word that often describes the right of individuals to make decisions regarding management. Who has the right to hire and dismiss others, who has the right to make budgetary decisions, and who has the right to establish goals and guidelines for the work of others? Authority can be formal or informal, but is most often held by a person, as opposed to the concepts of “power” and “management,” which are also properties of systems. A typical company can illustrate these three different concepts. The company has an owner with the right to operate it. The owner has the power to make most of the decisions in the company (within the limits of the law), but power alone does not create successful work; we need a recipe for successful organization of the work, i.e. management, to make reasonable use of the company’s resources. This control must be exercised by persons who are entitled and obliged to act on behalf of the company: i.e. managers with formal authority. So far, we need not use the word leadership at all. Leadership is about winning support from people who, at least in principle, could have wanted to do something else. “Leadership” is about creating dedication and cooperation towards a common goal. The word can be used in a broad range of situations, from political leaders who must be elected by others, to managers who lead paid workers with few real choices. In the latter case, the boss can order others to do almost whatever is needed, but voluntary commitment from the workers will still show up as improved performance. As General and President Eisenhower said, leadership is “the ability to decide what is to be done, and to get others to want to do it.” The word “leadership” has emerged due to the need to mobilize people. The philosopher Nietzsche pointed out that people are free to

A brief introduction.indd 9

13.05.14 09:12

Chapter 1

do what they want, but not to want what they want. We can choose to take a job, but it is not easy to choose to be enthusiastic. An essential element in the concept of “leadership” is about volunteerism and autonomy. You sometimes hear people say that certain social groups have to “accept more leadership.” This is, strictly speaking, an impossible concept. You can “accept” management, but only “commit to” or “follow” leadership. Power, however, is something you will be subjected to, whether you accept it or not. In this way, you cannot “accept” leadership any more than you can “choose to fall in love.” In practice, leaders exercise power, management and leadership without always reflecting over them. The use of the term “leadership” in society is generally rather vague, which may be a sign that the concept is still a “work in progress.” In fact, the word “leadership” was not much used before the twentieth century, but has now become a common word globally. Those who read the literature on leadership with a keen eye will see that the distinction between “leadership” and “management” is not used consistently. It emerged slowly at first in the United States, and the more conservative language environments, such as the United Kingdom, have only in recent years adopted the distinction between “leadership” and “management.” Many titles in the working life contain a blend of these concepts. “Chieftain” is derived from the Latin word caput, which means head. The words “captain,” “boss,” or “chief ” all mean “head person,” one who thinks and speaks for the community. In most management titles, this implies a blend of power, right and duty to manage, and formal and informal authority. Still, we often say that the task of managers is to exercise leadership. Moreover, the title “leader” has been a common denominator for all sorts of people with power and/or success: Politicians, military officers, clergy, entrepreneurs, millionaires, and even mafia bosses – all will be described in the press as “leaders”. The interest in leadership is large, growing and present in all areas of society. The claims about what leadership is vary from poetic notions

A brief introduction.indd 10

13.05.14 09:12

LEADERSHIP – in the borderland between mysticism and science

to well-founded arguments doubting that the phenomenon exists at all. Successful leadership seems to be a promising way to success, but there is no standard answer to what leadership is. Reputable scientists have repeatedly called on their colleagues to agree on a definition of leadership [1], but receive only ironic comments about who has the right to determine the answer. I believe the answer depends on how you understand the question; and so, this book aims towards answering five key questions: What are the benefits of using this concept? What are the underlying natural mechanisms that may explain leadership? Can a lack of knowledge about leadership be dangerous? Is it possible to use knowledge about leadership to create good leaders? And does leadership change over time and space? My hope is that this book will help the readers to find their own answers, and enable them to discuss leadership in the public sphere. Chapter 2 explains how the concept of “leadership” slowly emerged in the 1800s and developed into the present ideas about professional leadership. Co-operation exists in many forms; so why did a general concept called “leadership” emerge? In its modern form, “leadership” is part of a language that describes the responsibility for achieving results in organizations. All those affected by organizations are tied together by the leadership term – owners, managers, employees, competitors and society. The invention of the shareholding company (with limited liabilities), along with a growing diversity of new companies, has changed our understanding of authority. Leadership is a tool for managing risk and responsibility in the face of uncertainty. As the term has come into circulation, it has been used to explain decisive moments in social arenas as different as politics, business, religion, sports and war. Chapter 3 deals with various theoretical explanations of leadership, and provides an overview of why it is difficult to agree on a precise definition of the word. While some people are interested in great leaders as individuals, others are interested in leadership as a social or biological phenomenon. Many modern the-

A brief introduction.indd 11

13.05.14 09:12

Chapter 1

ories about leadership claim to be of practical value, aiming to give the reader a recipe for how leadership can be exercised in practice. While the theories dealing with great personalities or political events often describe spectacular situations, practical theories tend to be more prosaic than exciting. This chapter presents classical and typical explanations for leadership, with a little extra room for today’s most popular theory about how to exercise leadership. However, leadership is not only a balancing act between success and failure, but also between good and evil; and so, Chapter 4 deals with dangerous leadership. Inept leadership destroys lives and values, but dangerous leadership can destroy entire cultures. The number of leaders in the world is huge, but even more people are subjected to leadership. As citizens, as workers, as patients in hospitals, leadership directly or indirectly determines our everyday lives. A well-functioning society requires an informed general leadership culture. Without such knowledge, institutions fall prey to dangerous ideas about leadership. To modify an old proverb: leadership is too important to be left to leaders. Chapter 4 describes how common illusions about leadership make us vulnerable to leaders who utilize their position to serve their own needs at the expense of the world around them. Knowledge about leadership should be used to create better communities and organizations. This is the topic of Chapter 5 – leadership recruitment and development. Is it possible to identify and differentiate between people who are suitable for leadership and those who are not? Are there differences between men and women in leadership? Can people learn leadership, and if yes, how? Recruitment and development of leaders is a big market, where money is also wasted on ineffective approaches. This chapter reviews the principles and models derived from the so-called “best practices” for promoting well-founded leadership development. This is important for any organization when preparing for future challenges. The future is the topic of the final chapter, discussing leadership

A brief introduction.indd 12

13.05.14 09:12

LEADERSHIP – in the borderland between mysticism and science

across time and space. At a time where organizations are subject to greater dynamics than ever before, yesterday’s leadership may be less likely to ensure tomorrow’s success. Is leadership the same across generations and cultures? Are some cultures better suited for leadership than others? Exhaustive answers to such questions are not possible, but the questions allow us to put the leadership concept into perspective. Encountering global challenges and future scenarios makes it clearer what we mean by leadership. As a practical testing ground, this chapter addresses two major challenges in space and time: the increasing importance of East Asian leadership culture and the possible consequences of the economic turmoil in Europe. Posterity will look back on us and explain the mistakes of our time by the ways we were thinking. I believe it is an interesting exercise to “stress test” one’s own thinking about leadership by stretching the concept in terms of time and space, and I invite the readers to try this on their own.

Recommended reading Those who are interested in the development of the conceptual pair “leadership” and “management” will benefit from reading this short and succinct review: Bedeian, A.G. and J.G. Hunt, Academic amnesia and vestigial assumptions of our forefathers. The Leadership Quarterly, 2006. 17: pp. 190–205. Power is a many-headed beast. This book attacks all the heads one by one: Clegg, S.R., D. Courpasson and N. Phillips, Power and Organizations. 2006, London: Sage. This book offers a broader theoretical perspective for those who find ordinary leadership theory too narrow: Stacey, R.D., D. Griffin and P. Shaw, Complexity Theory and Management: Fad or Radical Challenge to Systems Thinking? 2000, London: Routledge.

A brief introduction.indd 13

13.05.14 09:12

Jan Ketil Arnulf

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO LEADERSHIP

”A brief introduction to leadership, should be on any bedside table.

ISBN 978-82-15-02413-4

788215 024134

Jan Ketil Arnulf

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO LEADERSHIP